FEATURED

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

A

Before the age of 21, Chase traveled, worked, or studied in more than 20 countries around the world. He spent time in private sector intelligence in Washington, helped start a national health program in Haiti, and served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. He’s rarely the smartest person in the room, but he’s usually pretty good at figuring out who is.

I am co-founder of Farmerline, a company that provides improved information access and communication pathways for smallholder farmers and agricultural stakeholders. As a software developer, I have thought through several problems and made choices on workable solutions by leveraging my past experiences in building location-based/GIS and GPS applications, SMS and voice applications, for the agricultural ecosystem in Ghana and beyond.

In 2012 Abiodun Afolabi's company started a revolution in Nigeria. A revolution that is spreading from Nigeria to the the rest of Africa as a whole. SB Telecoms and Devices Limited has taken on a very herculean task of challenging and fighting the menace of “AFRICAN TIME” which in Afolabi's opinion is largely responsible for the under development that Africa is plagued with.

Vikrum D. Aiyer is Chief of Staff of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Arriving from the White House, Aiyer previously served as President Obama’s senior policy advisor for the innovation and manufacturing agenda at the National Economic Council.

Shola is the co-founder and CEO of Paystack, an online payments company facilitating commerce in Africa by enabling frictionless payments and the first Nigerian company to be accepted into Silicon Valley Based Accelerator, Y Combinator. Since its launch in early 2016, Paystack has partnered with over 1,300 merchants in Nigeria alone, including industry e-commerce pioneers Hotels.NG and Jobberman.

Tayo is an entrepreneurship enthusiast who began her career at an NGO dedicated to advancing women in corporate business. Since then she has focused on understanding how businesses are built and sustained. She is currently a consultant for infoDev, a program of the World Bank, supporting the development of a pan-African accelerator.

Rami is a proud geek, investor. He is executive chairman of F03 Venture Partners an investment and economic development firm aiming to accelerate the startup, and investment ecosystems across emerging markets through community activation

Idriss Al Rifai is an entrepreneur passionate about disrupting the Middle East retail market with technologies and customer-centric services that enable the growth of e-commerce in the region. Idriss has developed and optimized a last mile delivery solution specifically for the e-commerce needs and requirements in the Middle East.

Amina al-Hawaj, known as the "youngest and first women inventor in Bahrain", has won many of global awards for her inventions in medical physiotherapy. Appointed as first Arabian to be “Ambassador of invention”, from the British inventors Society. Despite being only 19 years old, the physiotherapy student has treated more than 100 patients who suffer from osteoporosis, rheumatism, cruciate ligament injuries and muscular dystrophy with her invention.

Runa Alam is a co-founding partner and CEO of DPI, a leading Pan-African private equity firm with over US$1.1 billion of assets under management. She has more than 30 years of private equity, emerging market management, and investment banking experience. She serves on the board of several African companies which are investee companies of the DPI funds.

Robin is a serial brand innovator, creative director/copywriter and storyteller who has an insatiable curiosity about people and culture. Some of the original brands she helped create and steer to success for entrepreneurs and major corporations include: Origins Natural Resources and The Beauty Bank for Estée Lauder as well as Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, DrinkLavit, Stetson Bourbon, Voli Vodka, Jane Cosmetics, GeoGirl Cosmetics.

Joy Ajlouny is an e-commerce industry professional whose influence in business and entrepreneurship has spanned the globe. Joy is the co-founder of Fetchr, a Silicon-Valley backed technology company based in Dubai aimed at solving the "no-address" problem hindering growth in emerging markets.

Wafa is the Chief Executive Officer of Obai and Hill. Obai and Hill provides its clients with creative and innovative designs and strategic solutions that give them the needed competitive edge in the current marketplace. In 2015, Obai and Hill received the Start Up of the Year award, hosted by the Bahrain Entrepreneurship Awards.

Ala' Alsallal is the Founder and CEO of Jamalon, the largest online bookstore for Arabic and English books, offering more than 10 million titles with worldwide delivery. He holds a Masters of Science in Information Technologies and Telecommunications from Athens Information Technology.

Nicole Amarteifio is among several other highly acclaimed entrepreneurs cited in The Financial Times "Top 25 Africans to Watch" list, after a successful launch of the hit web series 'An African City.' The show hit 1 million views within the first several weeks of its release and, therefore, is considered one of Ghana's most successful YouTube channels. Nicole is currently pursuing TV projects full time, after a successful career in international development where she worked on policies such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) at The Whitaker Group.

Derek Andersen is the founder and CEO of Startup Grind, whose mission is to educate every entrepreneur in the world. Since 2012 Startup Grind has hosted 3,000 events for entrepreneurs in 80 countries and shared its values of giving, helping first, and making friends across its 200 Chapters.

Jehan Ara is the President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) and The Big Bird at The Nest i/o. Jehan has over 30 years experience in Marketing, Communications and interactive New media in Hong Kong, the Far East, the UAE and Pakistan.

Ime Archibong is the Director of Global Product Partnerships at Facebook. His team is focused on accelerating Facebook's product strategy and unlocking new business opportunities through partnerships and product integrations.

I was born in Winneba, Ghana, and I had my basic education in the same town.I continued to Ghana Secondary Technical School, for my secondary education, and then graduated in 1996 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a BSC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Debbie Aung Din Taylor is Co-founder of Proximity Designs, a non-profit social enterprise operating in Myanmar since 2004. Proximity designs, makes and sells products and services that provide a path out of poverty for rural families. These include farm irrigation devices, financial services and farm advisory services.

B

Andres Bautista is 44 years old and he was born in Bogota / Colombia. His first degree is in law and combines extensive legal and corporate management experience giving his clients the advantage of an attorney capable of understanding more than just the legal implications of a transaction or matter in litigation. Clients are represented by a lawyer who understands the real world challenges and pragmatic decisions facing today’s business and entrepreneurship. Admitted to practice law in Republic of Colombia since 1995 and currently limits his practice to corporate, employment, entrepreneurship and business matters.

Paul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012.

Juan Manuel Barrientos, known in the gastronomic world as Juanma, was born on June 16th in 1983 in Medellin, Colombia. He is entrepreneur, and peace lider. Juanma is creator and founder of the restaurants elcielo(Medellin,Bogota,Miami) ,elcielo catering ,Pizzeria la Serenissima de Venezia. He has won the recognition as one of the best chefs in Latin America, and the youngest ( LA 50 BEST SAN PELLEGRINO in 2013, 2014 and 2015).

Ross Baird has been at the forefront of the changing world of entrepreneurship, as a member of the founding team of ten enterprises since he started college. Ross developed Village Capital, the firm he runs, in 2009, and leads the development of an organization that has supported over 600 enterprises on six continents, as well as the world's first peer-selected venture fund.

As managing partner, Matt leads all aspects of Omidyar Network’s operations and strategy. He works closely with the co-founders and board of directors to ensure that Omidyar Network achieves its long-term mission and strategic objectives. Matt brings a wide range of executive, international, and multi-sector experience to his leadership of Omidyar Network

Radha Ramaswami Basu has over 30 years’ experience in executive management and is widely recognized as a leading woman technology entrepreneur and mentor, and as a pioneer in the Indian software business. Currently, she is CEO of iMerit, a company delivering on-demand data services to global companies like eBay and Microsoft, while creating social and economic change.

Elmira Bayrasli is the author of From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places, a book that looks at the rise of entrepreneurship globally. She is also the co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted and a lecturer at New York University.

Andrew is a #worldpositive investor and managing director of Obvious Ventures, a VC firm that empowers entrepreneurs to achieve both profit and purpose with their businesses. Andrew is a veteran in the solar industry with over a decade of experience focusing on clean energy solutions.

Archel Bernard is owner of The Bombchel Factory and Mango Rags boutique in Monrovia, Liberia. She moved to the West African country after graduating from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. She now specializes in dreaming up contemporary African womenswear, empowering disadvantaged women to sew her designs, and helping all the women she meets to become self-sufficient.

Jason is a San Francisco-based technology entrepreneur who thought there should be a better way for startups and SMEs to raise money. He co-authored the crowdfund-investing framework used in the JOBS Act to legalize securities-based crowdfunding in the US. He and his business partner led the 460-day grass roots campaign to change 80-year-old securities laws in the US.

Jim Bildner is the CEO at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm investing in early stage social enterprises that are tackling some of the world’s most challenging problems. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School where he teaches courses on social enterprise and sparking social change.

Fadi has in-depth knowledge and experience related to building successful startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the world. For over 20 years, he has been successfully matching human capital and venture capital needs across the globe, guiding talented technology entrepreneurs in their path. Prior to founding Blackbox, Fadi was the founder and CEO of techVenture.

C

Brian Cayce is the Vice President of Gray Ghost Ventures. He is a leading impact venture capitalist seeking technology-led startups in emerging markets bridging the access gap to essential services and goods for the mass market.

Sumir Chadha is the Co-­‐Founder and Managing Director of WestBridge Capital. Prior to this, he co-­‐founded and was a Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. Sumir currently serves on the boards of Vistaar Financial Services Private Limited and India Shelter Finance Corporation (ISFC).

Shaun’s first career was in the financial markets. He worked for Goldman Sachs in London and later managed his own hedge fund in San Francisco. Shaun was then drawn to the non-profit sector. He worked with street children in India and for fistula patients in Africa. And, at mothers2mothers, he led the launch and scale-up across Southern and East Africa of a program preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Ann Mei Chang is the Chief Innovation Officer and the Executive Director of the U.S. Global Development Lab at USAID. The Lab is the newest bureau at USAID and aims to transform global development through science, technology, innovation, and partnerships. Prior to USAID, Ann Mei was the Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy Corps, an international NGO. She also served as the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues at the U.S. Department of State.

Kevin is an emerging markets specialist in the technology industry with over a decade's experience launching products and initiatives across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Kevin currently serves in Microsoft's Affordable Access Initiative, an organization that partners with local start-ups, entrepreneurs, and businesses worldwide to connect the 4 billion people worldwide currently lacking access to the Internet.

I’m the Founder and CEO of JDPLabs. As a technology passionate and considering what a pleasant experience writing code is to me, I’ve always been interested in innovation through software, by focusing not only on what is needed, but also on improving how things are currently done around the globe, perhaps even shortening the gap between the present and the future. In an attempt to achieve this, I started a master’s degree program, during which I specialized in areas related to pervasive computing and autonomous multi-agent systems.

Emily Chang is the anchor of "Bloomberg West," a daily live show about tech, innovation and the future of business. She also hosts "Studio 1.0," an in-depth interview show, where she speaks to influencers in technology and media. Guests have included Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Virgin's Richard Branson, author Malcolm Gladwell, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and more. Emily also serves on BUILD’s National Board.

Angie is a Vice President at Hackbright Academy, where she leads partnerships and the mentorship program. Hackbright Academy runs 12-week accelerated engineering fellowships exclusively for women quarterly in San Francisco, with the goal of changing the ratio in engineering and technology by training more female software engineers. In 2008, she started Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners to network women in technology.

With over 35 years as a corporate lawyer & business advisor in international trade and investment, Tony is keenly focused on sub-Saharan Africa. Currently working to transfer new technology and methodology to the region, his passion for Africa, its business and overall development date back to his Peace Corps service in Botswana in the late 1970s.

Jean Case is an actively engaged philanthropist, investor and a pioneer in the world of interactive technologies. Her career in the private sector spanned nearly two decades before she and her husband, Steve Case, created the Case Foundation in 1997. The Case Foundation is recognized for its innovative efforts to address significant social challenges, harnessing the best impulses of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration to drive exponential impact.

Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life. As chairman and CEO of Revolution, a Washington, D.C.-based investment firm he co-founded in 2005, Steve partners with visionary entrepreneurs to build significant, ‘built to last’ businesses.

Sasha Chanoff is the founder and executive director of RefugePoint, a humanitarian organization that finds lasting solutions for the world’s most at risk refugees. Sasha has appeared on 60 Minutes and in other national media outlets, and has received social entrepreneur fellowships from Ashoka, Echoing Green, and the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.

Youssef studied industrial engineering at top Moroccan engineering university Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs. Upon graduating in 1998, he joined Unilever and held several positions there, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya. After Unilever, Youssef worked at Savola, a large Saudi Arabian edible oil company. During his time at both companies, Youssef deepened his knowledge of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution channels and honed his logistics and sales skills.

Brian is the co-founder and CEO at Airbnb. He drives the company's vision, strategy and growth as it provides interesting and unique ways for people to travel and changes the lives of its community. Under Brian's leadership, Airbnb stands at the forefront of the sharing economy, and has expanded to over 1,000,000 listings in 190 countries. Brian met co-founder Joe Gebbia at the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design.

Frank Chen is a partner at the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Frank was the VP of products at Opsware. During his tenure there, he gained expertise in enterprise software development and sales, product marketing, change management, and competitive strategies.

Steve Ciesinski is president of Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com), one of the world’s leading independent R&D organizations, with annual revenues of approximately $500M. SRI’s innovations have led to new products, businesses and industries that impact people’s lives every day...

Patrick Collison is the CEO and co-founder of Stripe, the technology company that expands internet commerce by making it easy to process transactions from anywhere. After experiencing firsthand how difficult it was to set up an online business, Patrick and his brother John started Stripe in the fall of 2010. Their goal was to make accepting payments on the internet simpler and more inclusive.

Maria Contreras-Sweet was sworn in as the 24th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and as a member of President Obama’s cabinet on April 7, 2014. The SBA is charged with supporting America’s 28 million small businesses, which create a majority of US jobs and employ half of our nation’s private-sector workforce.

D

When I started Bookmemate I had a vision: to help small or medium sized businesses better manage their bookings and finances. Most of them were running a business with an appointment book, a spreadsheet and email, which had several disadvantages such as finding past bookings, calculating revenue or produce financial documents for the business.

John Doerr is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who knows well you’re only as good as the entrepreneurs you serve. John and his partners at Kleiner Perkins strive every day to find, fund, and accelerate the success of truly disruptive entrepreneurs. John has backed the best – including Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt of Google; Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com; and Scott Cook and Bill Campbell of Intuit.

Dara is a pioneer in 3D printing in austere environments, who combines her design strategy experience and rapid ethnographic assessment to empower others through technology. Two years after the earthquake in Haiti, Dara realized the extreme supply chain challenges and was motivated to tackle these, starting with 3D printing as a way of addressing immediate needs. Subsequently, she co-founded Field Ready, an NGO that focuses on manufacturing humanitarian supplies.

Sunny co-founded Signia Venture Partners in 2012 after launching his own location-based mobile startup named Barstool and investing in early stage digital media start-ups for Pritzker Group Venture Capital in LA and Chicago. He was previously an M&A analyst in technology investment banking at Rothschild in London, the first business development hire at a venture backed spin-off of New Line Cinema, and a corporate strategist for Warner Bros.

Elsie Dogbegah is the founder and CEO of Elssy Kess company limited, a position she has held from the inception of the company. She has compassion for underprivileged women and gives them opportunities for employment and education.

Mr. Feng Deng founded Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC) in 2005. He currently manages approximately US$ 1.7 billion in committed capital with 4 US$ funds and 4 RMB funds. He has led and backed over 200 companies, focusing on 4 main sectors: TMT (technology, media and telecom), clean technology, healthcare and consumer.

Dr. Carol Dahl is the Executive Director of the Lemelson Foundation whose mission is to use the power of invention to improve lives. The Foundation inspires and enables the next generation of inventors and invention-based enterprises to promote economic growth in the U.S., and social and economic progress for the poorest populations in developing countries.

Matthew is co-founder & CEO of inploi, a UK based on-demand staffing platform revolutionising the jobs/recruitment market. He is also financial director of the Harambe Entrepreneur alliance and is a strategic advisor to TUSE, a South African mesh networked mobile communications app.

Born in Ghana, Sangu’s childhood home was a refuge for victims of torture and violence from neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Sangu graduated from Harvard with highest honors in African Studies and Economics. At Harvard, he co-founded cleanacwa in 2007, which today is working to bring clean water to over 100,000 people in 120 villages in Ghana.

Hanzade Doğan Boyner is a leading businesswoman, serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. She’s the Chairwoman of Doğan Online, a leading internet company with a strong and diverse portfolio of e-commerce businesses. As a pioneer of digital and online in Turkey, she founded and has led hepsiburada.com to become the biggest online retailer in the EEMEA region.

Krista Donaldson, PhD, has driven innovation in product design, engineering, and international development for more than 15 years. As D-Rev’s CEO, Krista’s has led the release of Brilliance, a revolutionary technology treating neonatal jaundice, and the ReMotion prosthetic knee. Her leadership has won Krista acclaim as one of Fast Company’s Co.Design 50 Designers Shaping the Future, a TED speaker and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.

Esther Dyson(@edyson on twitter) is executive founder of the Way to Wellvile (@WaytoWellville), an open-source, evidence-generating project devoted to defining and testing models for producing community health (not health care) that will return profits to investors and health to the participants and their communities.

E

Kamran Elahian is Chairman of the BIT-AMENA Center for Building Innovation Economies at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Elahian co-founded ten companies, three of them failed (e.g. Momenta), six of them produced a total market cap of over $8B (e.g. Cirrus Logic).

Sharif currently serves as partner lead to VCs and startups at Google. In his role, he works with top tier VCs and their most promising startups on strategies that bring all of Google to their fingertips. Joining from AdMob almost 6 years ago, he led performance advertising strategy for Google's largest customers in North America covering Mobile, Search and Display.

Herb serves as the Americas Leader of Strategic Growth Markets, (SGM) for EY--the world leader in advising, guiding and recognizing entrepreneurs. SGM is a global network of professionals advising the full spectrum of dynamic, fast-moving and ground-breaking companies around the world.

Linda Etim was sworn in as USAID’s Assistant Administrator for Africa in December 2015. In this capacity, she is responsible for more than $7 billion of assistance funding to 46 countries, in 29 regional and bilateral missions across sub-Saharan Africa.

F

Abderrahim Foukara is Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel's Washington DC Bureau Chief and host of Min Washington (From Washington), one of the Arab world's most successful and influential shows. Min Washington offers Arab viewers in-depth and well-informed analysis of US affairs and their impact on North Africa and the Middle East. As a veteran journalist with unique insight into US as well as Middle East politics, Abderrahim Foukara has been an essential voice in the US media's coverage of the Arab Spring, bringing more clarity and context to it, appearing as a commentator on Face the Nation, CNN, and NPR, among others.

Tariq Fancy is founder of Rumie, which today brings affordable digital education to remote, underserved communities worldwide ranging from Indian villages to Syrian refugee camps. Prior to founding Rumie in 2013, Tariq spent a long career in finance, starting as an investment banker in the Silicon Valley based group that led the IPOs of Amazon, Google, and Cisco, and later as the youngest partner at a New York Private Equity firm.

Willy Foote is founder and CEO of Root Capital, a nonprofit agricultural impact investor that provides capital, delivers financial training, and strengthens market connections for businesses in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Since 1999, Root Capital has disbursed more than $950 million in credit to over 600 rural enterprises that are building sustainable livelihoods for 1.2 million smallholder farmers.

Jim Fruchterman is the founder and CEO of Benetech, a Silicon Valley nonprofit technology company that develops software applications to address unmet needs of users in the social sector. He is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his work as a pioneering social entrepreneur, including the MacArthur Fellowship, Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Migel Meda

As Director of Liquid Assets, Michael Grossman is responsible for lending and fixed income investing at New Island Capital. Previously, Michael managed Calvert Foundation’s international impact investing portfolio and was a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office focused on financial inclusion and inclusive agriculture development. Michael was Senior Director at Millennium Challenge Corporation responsible for francophone Africa. Michael was Managing Director and Citigroup Country Officer in Tunisia where he was responsible for day-to-day management of Citibank’s commercial and retail operations

Mary Grove is the Director of Google for Entrepreneurs, leading Google's efforts to support startups and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries around the world. Mary is passionate about building community and has worked with groups of entrepreneurs in Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza, and Afghanistan, and previously led numerous international partnerships for Google. Mary earned her BA and MA from Stanford University. She is the co-founder of Silicon North Stars, a nonprofit that connects youth from the Midwest to Silicon Valley. She has served on the Board of the Techstars Foundation, UP Global, and the Stanford Alumni Association.

Daniel Grossman, MD is Senior Director, Global Health at Medtronic plc. He leads Medtronic’s effort to launch businesses that transform healthcare for underserved patients in emerging markets by bringing locally-appropriate services, solutions, and products to market. Daniel also advises on the development of healthcare ecosystems in emerging markets and on business development, strategy, and the changing environment of healthcare delivery in the U.S. and internationally.

Monica Garry, Monica is a senior Advisor to the Aspen Institute Alliance for Artisan Enterprise. The mission of the Alliance is to support the power and potential of the artisan sector to create jobs, increase incomes, enhance cultural heritage and promote development that respects the uniqueness of people and place. The Alliance is a collaborative effort of artisan businesses, artisan support organizations, corporations, foundations, government and multilateral agencies, and individuals working to support the full potential of artisan enterprise around the world.

Dr. Kamau Gachigi is the Executive Director of Gearbox, a hardware incubator or maker space seeking to provide innovators with access to world-class prototyping and low-volume production. The current focus is PCB fabrication and there are currently over 15 companies actively engaged. He previously taught engineering at the University of Nairobi where he established and headed a Fab Lab, and has recently established a second one in a deprived part of Nairobi, Kenya.

Doug Galen is the Co-Founder and CEO of RippleWorks, which is a private Foundation that pairs world-class business and technology experts with rapidly growing social ventures around the world. Beyond advising or mentorship, the RippleWorks program is real problem solving: volunteer experts work with innovative, rapidly growing social ventures to jointly solve an immediate and critical scaling challenge. RippleWorks currently has live projects through East Africa, Indonesia, India and the United States.

Chris Garcia is an American entrepreneur and political advisor based in Los Angeles, California. He is Co-Founder of TapEx, a startup crowdshipping app, and Managing Principal of Chris Garcia & Associates LLC, a U.S.-based consultancy. He also represents a private mid-market net worth family. Mr. Garcia lends his expertise as an entrepreneur, investment banker, and volunteer foreign diplomat.

Adriana is the Founder and CEO of Girls in Tech, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization devoted to empowering, educating and mentoring women in the tech industry across over 52 chapters internationally. She is also a partner at Founders Den in the heart of San Francisco's SOMA district where Girls in Tech's offices are located.

Rikin Gandhi is chief executive officer of Digital Green. His interests include sustainable agriculture and technology for socioeconomic development. He received a master's in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from MIT and a bachelor's in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. Rikin is a licensed private pilot and received patents for linguistic search algorithms that he helped develop at Oracle.

David Gluckman finished his Bachelor of Business Science with Honours in Economics from the University of Cape Town, thereafter he worked in a South African bank and global management consultancy. Taking a break from the corporate world to pursue other interests, among them, entrepreneurship, he joined a group of his colleagues who were working on the foundations of Lumkani, a tech company that builds fire detection for informal settlements.

Arun comes to social venture capital after executive leadership roles in finance and operations in the telecommunications industry. Arun brings his general management experience to lead the management of the organization, investment team and Fund investment activities. Over the last 10 years, he has been involved in developing the Impact Ventures portfolios under management and promoting financial and social value creation.

Elizabeth Gore is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell, where Gore drives initiatives that support Dell’s goals around helping small and medium businesses scale and prosper, fueling the expansion of global entrepreneurship, thereby creating jobs that will drive the world economy. Gore is extending Dell’s global advocacy efforts to raise entrepreneurship to the public policy agenda, encouraging policies and practices that support and enable entrepreneurial growth globally.

Sam co-founded d.light, a social enterprise providing solar energy to the 2 billion people living without reliable power. d.light has improved the lives of over 65 million people in 60 countries and saved its customers over $2 billion in kerosene expenses. With d.light, Sam helped raise over $50 million, started the Indian and African sales offices, and oversaw multiple award-winning product launches.

Antonio partners with and invests in transformational companies. An early investor in businesses as diverse as Uber and PayPal, Antonio currently is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Valor Equity Partners, the private equity firm he founded in 2001. Valor is headquartered in Chicago, has offices in San Francisco and New York City, and manages over $1 billion through several investment funds.

Heather Grady is a Vice President at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA). She leads the organization's strategy and program development in global philanthropy, including collaboratives, research, and publications, as well as expanding efforts on impact investing and social enterprise. She helped create, and leads on, the SDG Philanthropy Platform (SDGFunders.org), facilitating philanthropy’s engagement in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Helen Greiner is CEO of CyPhy Works, Inc, a company that designs and delivers innovative robots. In 1990, she co-founded iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT), which has become the global leader of mobile robots with the success of the Roomba™ Vacuuming Robot and the PackBot™ and SUGV Military Robots. Ms Greiner served as President of iRobot until 2004 and Chairman until October 2008.

Mary Grove is the Director of Google for Entrepreneurs, leading Google's efforts to support startups and entrepreneurs in more than 100 countries around the world. Mary is passionate about building community and has worked with groups of entrepreneurs in Pakistan, Iraq, Gaza, and Afghanistan, and previously led numerous international partnerships for Google.

Ken Gustavsen is Executive Director, Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co., Inc. and Senior Vice President of the Merck Foundation (Merck operates as MSD outside of the US and Canada). He is responsible for a range of developing world health programs that involve innovative mechanisms to expand access to medicines through a spectrum of philanthropic and commercial approaches.

Wendy Guillies is the president and chief executive officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Established in Kansas City, Missouri, by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States with an asset base of more than $2 billion.

H

Hind Hobeika is a self-tracking engineer who believes biological parameters are the most fascinating input for technological systems. She is the founder of Instabeat, an award winning startup that creates high-tech tools that track and improve athletes' performance and well-being. Hind is also the founder of the Quantified Self, Beirut chapter.

John L. Hennessy is the President of Stanford University. A pioneer in computer architecture, in 1981 Dr. Hennessy drew together researchers to focus on a computer architecture known as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), a technology that has revolutionized the computer industry by increasing performance while reducing costs. In addition to his role in the basic research, Dr. Hennessy helped transfer this technology to industry. In 1984, he cofounded MIPS Computer Systems, now MIPS Technologies, which designs microprocessors. In recent years, his research has focused on the architecture of high-performance computers.

Prior to co-founding Rivet Ventures, Rebeca Hwang co-founded YouNoodle, Cleantech Open, and Startup Nations Summit. Rebeca was educated at MIT and Stanford and has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and as one of the top 35 under 35 Global Innovators by MIT Tech Review. Rebeca also serves on the Global Board of Kauffman's GEW and lectures Technology Entrepreneurship at Stanford University.

Xavier Helgesen is serial social entrepreneur. Prior to Off Grid Electric, Xavier founded two million­dollar businesses in his 20’s, including Better World Books, a profitable social venture with $60M in revenue selling books online to fund literacy. In 2009 he was recognized as the Best Social Entrepreneur by Businessweek and given the Fast Company Social Capitalist award. Xavier holds an MBA from Oxford Saïd Business School, which he attended on a Skoll Scholarship, and a BA (honors) from the University of Notre Dame.

Stephanie Hanson is Senior Vice President of Policy and Partnerships at One Acre Fund, a social enterprise that provides financing and training to over 400,000 smallholder farmers in six countries in Africa. She joined the organization in 2009, and is currently focused on how One Acre Fund can leverage its operating model to pursue alternative pathways to scale, such as growing the overall sector of agriculture microfinance for smallholder farmers (“farm finance”), or applying One Acre Fund’s field learnings to influence the global policy community.

Donna Harris is cofounder and co-CEO of 1776, a global innovation platform bringing together startups, investors, major institutions and policymakers to uncover and scale the world’s most promising ideas. With campuses in Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, San Francisco and Dubai, a digital innovation curriculum accessed daily by thousands of startups and institutions around the globe, and a venture capital fund making investments worldwide, 1776 has become the premier partner for innovators seeking to drive major global change

Nate Hurst is currently the Chief Sustainability & Social Impact Officer for HP. He helps drive programs with a focus on the environment, society, and integrity that are aligned with HP’s business strategy. Nate directs the strategy of a global team of experts focused on driving solutions in collaboration with non-profit organizations, governments, customers, and partners. His team reinvents sustainable solutions that address societal challenges in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, and the environment while utilizing HP’s technology.

Brett is the CEO and Co-Founder of New Story - an innovative nonprofit thattransforms slums into sustainable communities around the world. Brett is a YCombinator graduate, former founder of a venture-backed e-commerce company, anauthor, cancer survivor, and was recently named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Mansoor Hamayun is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of BBOXX, a dynamic young company that designs, manufactures, distributes and finances innovative solar systems to improve access to energy across Africa and the developing world.

Julie is an entrepreneur, investor and advisor to numerous pioneering Silicon Valley companies. She is Executive Chair of the Board at Kiva, the world’s first and largest crowdlending marketplace for global entrepreneurs. Julie is also an active advisor and investor to sharing economy pioneer Lyft, Bonobos, MightyText, Idealab, creator of over 125 companies with 40 IPO’s and acquisitions, and Lending Club (NASDAQ: LC).

Sandhya Hegde runs Khosla Impact, a leading early stage VC fund investing in India and sub Saharan Africa. She is an engineer and an entrepreneur at heart. She has cofounded and invested in over 20 tech startups tackling significant challenges in clean energy, affordable education, healthcare technologies and financial services.

An accomplished entrepreneur, executive, and investor, Reid Hoffman has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses. In 2003 Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service. LinkedIn is thriving with more than 400 million members around the world.

Victor W. Hwang is Vice President of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading foundation for entrepreneurs. Hwang leads the Foundation’s initiatives that educate entrepreneurs, support entrepreneurial programs that can scale and create impact, and invest in metropolitan areas to create vibrant ecosystems that help companies start and grow.

J

As vice president of Public Affairs and Communications at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Larry serves on the Kauffman Foundation’s senior leadership team. Jacob leads all internal and external communications with emphasis on marketing activities, institutional branding, media relations, employee communications, and executive support. He also serves as a critical thought partner to the strategy and partnership development for Kansas City grant making under the Foundation’s KC Civic engagement program.

Lily is a financial journalist for Reuters TV, a newscast for the mobile-first generation (Reuters.TV). Based in Reuters’ San Francisco bureau, Lily covers technology and the West Coast. She’s also covered the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Aspen Ideas Festival since joining Reuters in 2014. Prior to Reuters, Lily spent several years freelancing for the BBC and other outlets, covering climate change in the Maldives, ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan, and public safety initiatives ahead of the World Cup in Brazil.

Leila Janah is the Founder and CEO of Sama and Laxmi, two companies recently highlighted on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list that share a common social mission to end global poverty by giving work to people in need. She is also the co-author of America's Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age, a book by Rework America: A Markle Initiative.

Since 1992, Todd’s work has focused on the design of social processes, technologies and experiences to tap collaborative intelligence and sense-making in order to embrace complexity, accelerate learning and foster innovation across organizations and communities.

Having over 20 years of investment experience, Nikunj heads the World Bank/ IFC’s Venture Capital (VC) global investment group. At IFC, Nikunj has led over 100 direct equity investments, several of which have had successful exits, and oversees an active portfolio of 35 companies and a dozen VC funds, totaling over US$1 billion, all emerging markets focused. Prior to joining IFC in Washington DC, Nikunj spent nine years living and working in Asia. He was a Managing Director for one of Asia's leading venture funds.

Sheila C. Johnson, Entrepreneur; Founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts. As a leading executive in the hospitality sector, one of the nation’s top professional sports team owners, a pioneer in the entertainment industry, a prominent patron of the arts, and a champion of women’s empowerment around the world, Sheila C. Johnson has a distinguished record of accomplishment that reflects her wide-ranging passions.

Badr Jafar is CEO of the Crescent Group, which is headquartered in the UAE since 1972. The Group comprises of two companies: Crescent Petroleum and Crescent Enterprises. Badr is active in a variety of other industries including ports and logistics, serving as Chair of the Executive Board of Gulftainer (the world’s largest private container port operator), and private equity, serving as a member of the boards of The Abraaj Group (UAE) and GrowthGate Capital (Bahrain).

An entrepreneur in every sense of the word, Daymond John has come a long way from taking out a $100,000 mortgage on his mother’s house and moving his operation into the basement. John is CEO and Founder of FUBU, a much-celebrated global lifestyle brand, and a pioneer in the fashion industry with over $6 billion in product sales.

Ari Johnson, MD is co-founder and CEO of Muso and Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco Global Health Sciences. Ari trained at Harvard Medical School and completed his residency at at the University of California San Francisco.

K

John Kunze brings in-depth knowledge of global payments technology to PayPal. As head of Xoom, John is responsible for expanding PayPal’s range of international money transfer services. Xoom makes it easy, fast and secure for people to send their hard-earned money to loved ones, which is important to PayPal’s strategic vision to make the movement and management of money work better for people.

Natasha Kapil is a Senior Private Sector Development Specialist in the World Bank Group's Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice. She focuses on innovation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness policy broadly speaking and has coauthored several strategic national and regional studies in ECA including on reforming public research and development institutes and building more efficient innovation systems.

Emily Kirsch is Co-Founder and CEO of Powerhouse, the world's first and only solar focused incubator and accelerator with over 20 solar startups and cleantech organizations. Prior to founding Powerhouse, Emily worked with former advisor to President Obama, Van Jones, at the Ella Baker Center where she launched and led the Green Jobs Corps - Oakland's first solar training program.

Hal Kruth has been a founder, mentor, seed investor, executive manager and active board member in over 50 early stage technology ventures. He currently is Chairman of Factor(E) Ventures, a pioneering venture development firm that propels access-to-energy solutions into the developing world. Factor(E) provides a unique blend of risk capital and world-class technical resources to support early stage ideas and entrepreneurs. From 2001 through 2008 Hal was one of the top executives responsible for a spin-out ($2+billion dollar IPO) of the UK’s defense science and engineering labs

Whether it’s founding the world’s first P2P search engine, or developing the premier enterprise content delivery system, Travis believes that every problem has a solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it. That spirit is at the very core of Uber’s success and ever expanding global presence, currently in more than 400 cities in 68 countries on six continents.

Emiliano Kargieman, known to his friends as “EK”, has spent the last 25 years building technology and technology companies. As a founder of Core Security Technologies, EK developed the first automated penetration testing software, earning the loyalty of clients such as Apple, Cisco, Homeland Security, NSA, NASA, Lockheed Martin, and DARPA.

Esther Karwera is a 24 year old Female Ugandan software developer, energetic entrepreneur and co-founder of AKORION Company limited an ICT company whose goal is improve the livelihood of over 400,000 smallholder farmer, reduce costs of transaction and increase efficiency along the agricultural value chain in Uganda.

Nagraj is Corporate VP and Global Head, Microsoft Ventures. Nagraj has over 20 years’ experience in mobile and software with an emphasis on venture capital. Prior to joining Microsoft in January, 2016, he was senior vice president for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Randall Kempner is Executive Director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). As executive director of ANDE, Randall oversees the implementation of ANDE’s extensive program, research and advocacy agenda, including its seven international chapters and multiple grant and challenge competitions that support the entrepreneurship sector.

Daphne Koller is the President and Co-Founder of Coursera, leading the growth and nurturing of Coursera's partnerships with universities. Previously, she was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years.

Keith Krach is Chairman and CEO of DocuSign, The Global Standard for Digital Transaction Management. The DocuSign Global Trust Network empowers more than 225,000 companies and 85 million users in 188 countries to transact anything, anytime, anywhere, on any device – securely.

Alex Krause is a program officer in Research and Policy for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Krause’s expertise is in organizational behavior and human capital in entrepreneurship, especially through demographic and industry studies. In terms of demographic research, Krause runs the women’s research agenda, working to find intersections for both research and programs in closing the gender gap.

Mike Kriegeris the technical lead and co-founder of Instagram, a global community that shares more than 60 million photos every day. As the head of engineering, Mike focuses on building products that bring out the creativity in all of us.

L

Marie Leznicki is Chief Experience Officer at Bridge International Academies, a network of nearly 500 nursery and primary schools across Africa and Asia. Since 2010, Marie has led radical innovation across how academies operate increasing speed of expansion into new markets. She is responsible for recruiting and training academy staff, managing academy operations, admitting and retaining pupils, driving community programmes, and developing new offerings like uniforms and school lunches.

Aileen is the founder of Cowboy Ventures, a seed­stage focused fund that backs tech entrepreneurs re­imagining life and work, what they call “life 2.0”. Cowboy Ventures works with a diversity of consumer and enterprise­ oriented companies including Area1 Security, August, Dollar Shave Club, Lending Home, StyleSeat and Textio.